Morsures mortelles

When I first saw this movie, I only caught the first half hour of it, but it was enough. I had seen enough of these formulaic, made-for-TV movies to know how it was going to end. Two months later, the curiosity of the accuracy of my predictions got the best of me, so I rented the movie and finished it this time. And I can say that with my guesstimation abilities, movie companies should hire me to write formulaic, made-for-TV movies. Everything happened that I anticipated: the progression of the plot, the introduction and killing off of characters, the role each character plays in the movie, it all was there.

If you've seen one of these movies, you've seen them all. Movies like this one, Marabunta, The Fury Within, Nightscream, Burial of the Rats, they are all the same. Watch one movie, replace the aggressive animal with a different animal, and enjoy.

Scott says: For a movie of silent rattlesnakes, the snakes sure broke script a lot.

In 1979, a rare breed of rattle snake – naturally, a more ferocious variety than the typical species – is set loose after the truck carrying it overturns. After fatally striking both the occupants of the crash, it then descends on a disused mine shaft where it breeds with regular rattlesnakes, and 20 years later the effects of this lethal concoction are awoken by a housing development. Harry Hamlin is the new fire chief whose first day on the job sees him dealing with a fatal snake bite, after a pair of juveniles frolicking in a thicket stumble on a specimen. From there, matters deteriorate as locals are overcome by a plethora of the new breed, the venom from which is more deadly than any known to man, and predictably, for which no serum currently exists. A herpetologist is enlisted but with the local economy's purse strings being controlled by greedy developer (Scalia), action is far from swift or decisive. So, inevitably, several bystanders quickly become victims until Scalia decides to take matters into his own hands, with disastrous results.

Not bad for a tele-movie, with capable performances and well conceived sub plots. McCormack as the local snake enthusiast comes off best, in spite of her whacky idea to address the problem by introducing more snakes, while Scalia plays a remarkably restrained villain, whose worst trait is being unethical moreover than exhibiting any overtly sinister behaviour. The blossoming romance between Hamlin and Sturges offers gentle respite in the film's troughs, and generally speaking, the show moves along with reasonable momentum and pace. While the special effects aren't all that special, director Nosseck still manages to build the suspense and an effective balance between storyline and detail. Perhaps the only real faux pas is the film's title – unless fitted with a silencer, one would assume that rattlesnakes indeed rattle, and would therefore only be silent to the hearing impaired.

A sharp eye for detail will reveal that the location is clearly not the USA in which the picture is set, but actually Queensland, Australia, as such the peripheral cast will be familiar to Australian audiences with familiar faces in bit parts and some supporting roles. Not movie of the week material, but competent within in its own limitations and definitely worth a look for those who don't suffer from snake phobia.

SILENT PREDATORS is your usual monster-of-the-week TV movie with snakes being the menace of choice this time around. As a typically sanitised television movie this offers up few scares and even fewer thrills, instead happy to plod through TV-level inanity for the most part; everything is predictable, clichéd, and well-telegraphed in advance.

The only thing of note about this film is that John Carpenter had a hand in writing the story, which in any case is entirely derivative. Folk in a small town discover that some killer foreign snakes have been breeding in the area and are now killing the townsfolk. A smarmy property developer (Jack Scalia) tries to cover everything up while loner hero Harry Hamlin (once of CLASH OF THE TITANS fame) strives to save the world.

SILENT PREDATORS is a film populated by ageing TV stars and features a non-threatening menace, although I'm happy that real snakes were used instead of stupid CGI creations. The PREDATOR-style snake vision is a step too far, though, and the attempts to create an exciting climax fall flat.

"Silent Predators" uses every single cliche from countless other horror movies which have "nature vs. the greedy interests of capitalism" as a theme e.g. "Empire of the Ants" Although this formula is tired, sometimes two big heaping scoops of banality is just what the doctor ordered. Rating: 6 out of 10

"Vic Rondelli" (Harry Hamlin) is the new Fire Chief for the small town of San Catalona and on the first day at his job a teenage boy is bitten and killed by a rattlesnake. Although the rattlesnake managed to escape Vic is surprised at how fast the venom took effect. Not long afterward six or seven rattlesnakes are found in the crawlspace of a new home but before Vic has a chance to examine any of them a real estate developer named "Max Farrington" (Jack Scalia) has them killed and quickly burned. Concerned about this sudden appearance of such aggressive rattlesnakes Vic attempts to take certain proactive measures but is thwarted at every opportunity by Max-even as the death toll rises. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that, although the plot greatly resembled the film "Rattled" which was produced three years earlier, this was a still a decent movie none-the-less. It had good suspense and some solid performances by Jack Scalia, Shannon Sturges (as Max Farrington's assistant "Mandy Stratford") and Harry Hamlin. Again, while this movie was hardly unique it still wasn't too bad and for that reason I rate it as about average.